Uploaded by mercola
on Dec 9, 2011
http://fitness.mercola.com/ Natural health physician and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola interviews Doug McGuff, MD to help us understand this highly beneficial form of exercise "High Intensity Exercise".
Mercola Interview with Doug McGuff – 180 Degree Health
Brock
Matt Stone williamc
However, BBS is not above criticism… To me the most important line of criticism (although highly speculative, and a line of discussion that I’ve been trying to jump start on the internet for a while) is that McGuff’s point of view may be an example of confirmation bias in that it assumes away the long-term effects of HIIT cardio on pulmonary function.
McGuff looked at exercise and cut through most of the false consciousness about aerobics. He saw no significant adaptations to the heart itself and the vascular system itself beyond what was occurring in the muscles worked and the effect of that work on metabolism. Thus, he made his well-known comment that “Cardio doesn’t even really exist”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiHhc7eLpQY
While exploring this line, influenced by the super-slow, high intensity training protocol, he devised an excellent exercise protocol to work as many muscles as possible to exhaustion in a short period of time with little or no impact on the joints.
But, he doesn’t address the Al Sears “are your lungs dying?” issue at all. HIT resistance training is radically different from PACE/HIIT in that your heart rate doesn’t go to a maximal rate and, perhaps more importantly, your respiration rate doesn’t go to the extremes that it formerly went to in childhood or in HS/College athletics. To me, that’s the big difference between properly done HIIT and HIT resistance, the return to working your lungs to the max. IMO, it’s hard to imagine any way resistance training having the effect on pulmonary function that Sears claims for PACE.
Also, for HIIT, McGuff tends to think about it as if you’re pounding your joints on a treadmill or using typical aerobics machine such as an elliptical trainer. But in my experience, PACE works best when you choose the most whole body, killer exercises you can find e.g. burpees, leg blasters, mountain climbers, hindu squats etc. You’re left similarly spent after less than 20 minutes, which equates to 3 sessions in 1 hour a week. Total. With no drive to the gym.
Now, if I had the chance to try HIT resistance in McGuff’s gym, or Zickerman’s gym (Power of 10), with everything set up for me and good trainers to advise me, I’d probably do it. But attempting to devise a workout for myself at home with dumbbells didn’t turn out that well. And the thought of hitting a regular meathead gym, or even the Y, did not appeal either. Also, with free weights, superslow can be dangerous for some exercises. Would you want to take 10 seconds do to the negative side of a dead lift?
The above argument most definitely does not mean that Sears is right and McGuff is wrong. Perhaps, pulmonary function decline is not affected by exercise at all.
Neesha
williamc
I was participating in a very ‘internal’ Tai Chi and Qi Gong school which essentially did no jiben gong (fundamental training) at all. The school was great at teaching the deeper aspects of TCC/QG but IMO was wrong-headed in its view of strength and tension. I watched students, many of whom spent 45 minutes a day practicing the internal arts (and much more than that if you count class time) who were essentially too weak to properly do the Tai Chi form. They progressed at a glacial pace from year to year, partly because they were too weak, and partly because they ignored the school’s implicit advice to do the basic standing Qi Gong set. But even the ones who did Qi Gong were often without enough functional strength to easily perform a full squat. Then I realized that my own upper body had atrophied to the point that I had to strain to do 1 or 2 good form push ups (I’m on the wrong side of 60). I started researching and learned about sarcopenia.
Don’t forget, the red line for a deconditioned person might be reached by brisk 100 yard walk when she starts HIIT training. And she might start bench pressing with a tiny weight. PACE (with feedback from the heart monitor), Convict Conditioning (w. gentle 1st. steps to condition the tendons and ligaments) and BBS have the progressive element built in and warn against over-training.
Also, learning and practicing the internal arts is very time-intensive. PACE, CC and BBS all offer methoda that don’t take much time at all.
